Live From The Resistance, It’s The Grammys

They started off subtle then Busta Rhymes got up on stage

Not even the Grammys are completely free of politics in these days.. The 59th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, says Maxwell Srachan, “were chock-full of subtle messages of resistance against the Trump administration.”

Early on in the show, Paris Jacksonsaid “We could really used this kind of excitement at a pipeline protest, guys,” when she introduced The Weeknd and Daft Punk, referencing the ongoing fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Soon after, Jennifer Lopez was quoting Toni Morrison’s message for artists in politically difficult times before she announced the winner of Best New Artist:

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

Performing in front of a backdrop of the Constitution and wearing an armband that read “PERSIST,” Katy Perry yelled, “No hate!”

While accepting the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album, Beyoncé explained, “I want that for every child of every race, and I feel it’s vital that we learn from the past and recognize our tendencies to repeat our mistakes.”

But the most direct swipe at Trump came when Busta Rhymes joined the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest onstage, and repeatedly referred to him as “President Agent Orange.” They were then joined by Anderson .Paak and numerous women dressed in hijab. The performance, says Strachan, ended with A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip repeatedly shouting to the crowd: “Resist, resist, resist.”